Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly

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"Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly", NAPSNet Weekly Report, July 26, 2012, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-weekly/nautilus-peace-and-security-weekly-15/

26 July 2012

The Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report presents articles and full length reports each week in six categories: Austral security, nuclear deterrence, energy security, climate change and security, the DPRK, climate change adaptation and governance and civil society. Our team of contributors carefully select items that highlight the links between these themes and the three regions in which our offices are found—North America, Northeast Asia, and the Austral-Asia region. Each week, one of our authors also provides a short blog that explores these inter-relationships.

CONTENTS

See this week’s blog from our Deterrence contributor, Peter Hayes.

DETERRENCE:  Seconds away from midnight: U.S. nuclear missile pioneers on Okinawa break fifty year silence on a hidden nuclear crisis of 1962, Jon Mitchell, NAPSNet Special Report (26 July 2012)

Six months before the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States secretly deployed Mace 1.1 megaton missiles, similar to the Russian SS-24 missiles stationed on Cuba, to Okinawa.  During the Crisis, the Mace missiles likely targeted China, not Russia.

Check out this week’s Deterrence blog: South Korea’s Long Bow

DPRK: KJU named KPA Marshal, Hyon Yong Chol named Chief of General Staff, North Korea Leadership Watch (22 July  2012)

Kim Jongun attained Marshal Rank and it is now fairly clear he controls the military.  There is speculation he wants to reform the economy. Likely no one knows the true state of the economy. One program is building technocratic capacity required in a globally complex system. South Korea won the Olympic broadcast rights for the Korean Peninsula leading to more penetrations of North Korea’s infosphere and a rare opportunity to cooperate.

ENERGY SECURITY: Powerless in India, Minhaz Merchant, Times of India (12 July 2012)

Washington, DC suffered energy insecurity for a few days. It is a routine affair for some 1-1.5 billion people – and their businesses. From Japan to most of South Asia and Africa, hundreds of millions have only changed their labels from “no grid” to “on grid but no power”, as UN/IEA go on with empty promises of “universal access for all”. As things get only worse, will some heads roll? Any hope for a Power Spring?

GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Philippines to boost defense, won’t yield to China, Jim Gomez, Associated Press (24 July 2012)

President Aquino of the Philippines has called for increased military capacity and “unity” in resolving territorial disputes with China, while the Senate ratified an accord allowing Australian combat troops to train with Philippine counterparts. The Philippines and Vietnam protested against China’s establishment of a new city in the South China Sea. A leading Chinese newspaper called on the government to stop development aid to the Philippines.

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Climate change adaptation and the Australian urban water industry, Occasional Paper 27, Water Services Association of Australia (March 2012) [1.21 MB, PDF]

Climate change projections for Australia suggest a hotter, drier climate, rising seas and more intense fires and floods. These projections will be critically important to the management of water services across the country because the water cycle is highly sensitive to climate. Therefore, collaboration and engagement across the water sector will be critical to ensure continuing successful adaptation to a changing climate.

AUSTRAL PEACE AND SECURITY: Americans aghast at ally’s deep defence cuts, Greg Sheridan, The Australian (21 July 2012) (subscription required)

When Duncan Lewis, head of the Australian Defence Department, went to the Pentagon for an appointment with senior US defence officials the Americans registered their concern over the radical cuts to the defence budget that the Gillard government had enacted. The Americans cannot quite believe the government has cut defence so savagely and they wanted to make their concern very plain. The leadership of the Australian Defence Organisation — civilian and military — is aghast at this vandalism.

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